Donald Trump Just Killed The Fed’s ‘Digital Dollar’—While Quietly Leaning Into Bitcoin And Crypto Amid Price Boom
Former U.S. president and 2024 Republican front-runner Donald Trump has said he’d block the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC)—sometimes called a digital dollar—if he retakes the White House this year.
The controversial digital dollar, inspired by bitcoin and thrust into the spotlight by Facebook’s failed digital currency project and China’s own digital yuan in recent years, has become a culture war flash point, with some fearing it will hand governments unprecedented control over how people spend their money.
Meanwhile, as Elon Musk quietly prepares a crypto bombshell, Trump has expanded his crypto-based non-fungible token (NFT
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Former U.S. president Donald Trump has said he opposes a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), … [+]
“Tonight, I am also making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny,” Trump said during a campaign speech in New Hampshire.
“As your president, I will never allow the creation of a CBDC. Such a currency would give the federal government, our federal government, absolute control over your money. They could take your money and you wouldn’t even know it was gone.”
The U.S. Federal Reserve has, along with other central banks and governments around the world, been investigating issuing a CBDC but has repeatedly said it wouldn’t create one without authorization from Congress.
“[A digital dollar] would give a federal government—our federal government — absolute control over your money,” Trump said. “They could take your money. You wouldn’t even know it’s gone. This would be a dangerous threat to freedom, and I will stop it from coming to America.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, who had been challenging Trump for the Republican nomination before dropping out and endorsing Trump this week, claimed on Fox News to have spoken to Trump about the dangers he sees from a digital dollar, suggesting the former candidate could steer Trump toward a crypto-friendly position.
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The bitcoin price has surged since Donald Trump left the White House in early 2021.
In 2019, Trump said he’s “not a fan” of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, posting to Twitter (now X) in response to Facebook’s plans to create a its own digitial currency: “We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!”
In 2021, Trump said he thought bitcoin “seemed like a scam.”
However, since then Trump has issued a NFT collection featuring what are branded as digital trading cards. This week, Trump’s NFT collection expanded to the bitcoin network to ordinals, an NFT-like digital asset on the bitcoin blockchain.
The company running Trump’s NFT venture posted to X that collectors who pay $99 apiece for 100 of his “mugshot edition” NFTs, will also get a unique card in the form of an ordinal.
“The first ever Trump Trading Cards on bitcoin,” the TrumpCollect X account posted.
Late last year, blockchain data showed Trump seemed to have sold off $2.4 million worth of ethereum
“Looks like Donald Trump is selling his ethereum,” blockchain sleuths at Arkham Intelligence posted to X. “Three weeks ago he started sending ethereum to Coinbase after months of accumulating Trump NFT royalties. His peak balance was $4 million. Based on the deposits, so far he’s sold 1,075 ethereum for $2.4 million.”
The Biden administration and U.S. regulatory agencies’ opposition to bitcoin and crypto has been accused of “killing” the U.S. crypto industry and stifling innovation.
“The point is, if they calmed down and really studied the technology, they’d be running toward the technology and not away from it,” Trump’s short-lived communications director and hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci told Yahoo Finance on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
